Carol Szasz used to purchase enough wood to make furniture for one month. A loan from ROMCOM, HOPE’s partner in Romania, enabled him to purchase a year’s supply of wood, cutting his transportation costs and qualifying him for lower prices from wholesalers. The loan has increased his profit margin, enabling him to provide for his wife and two children and continue expanding his business. In the future, Carol would like to purchase a wood dryer, which would help him cut costs and could also enable him to provide this new service to other local manufacturers.
![Before Eveness Mulungu joined the Walusungu (“mercy”) savings group through our church partner in Malawi, she faced days where she and her family ate animal feed because they couldn’t afford human food. But that changed when she joined the savings group. Eveness used her first group loan of about $1.70 (U.S.) to start a business selling doughnuts and beans.
“By the end of my first cycle I made $140 (U.S.),” Eveness shared. “My life is no longer the same now; [I] was regarded as no one in the community. ... This was the first time in my life that I ever touched and owned big money like this!”
Pictured: Eveness, with her husband in front of their piggery—a third successful business that she operates.](https://blog.hopeinternational.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)